The Results of Cheaping Out on Your Date Plans
by Shihanne
Summary: [DA02] "But you know, that was pretty impressive, you managing to break away even when you were being held in a hostage situation. I was worried about how you'd hold up while I was trying to find where they were keeping you, but you held out really well after all…"


Once upon a time, a very romantically-inclined couple went on a very passionate date with a long day of bonding at an amusement park and ended it with in a long, emotionally-investing movie and an intense kiss near the ocean sunset.

We are _not_ going to be talking about that couple today.

Our story involves a certain Ichijouji Ken and Inoue Miyako, who were also on a date, but unfortunately due to a certain scheduling conflict and a restaurant suddenly shutting down out of nowhere were forced to eat at a Chinese ramen place they normally frequented anyway. Said restaurant also happened to be in the Digital World, because after three hours of inquiring at various places and walking all over the place getting frustrated, Miyako simply didn't want to do much walking anymore.

"I'm sorry we have to spend our date here, though," said Miyako. "If I'd prepared a little better, we'd be having a much nicer day..."

"It's fine. Really, it is." He looked amusedly at Wormmon and Hawkmon, who were gorging themselves on some dumplings. "It's not your fault at all...and besides, we got to bring them with us. I'm happy just being here, so don't worry about it."

"But still..." Miyako sighed, looked at Wormmon and Hawkmon, and smiled a little. "Well, I guess you're right."

They continued eating, with the two Digimon next to them getting closer and closer to emptying their plates with every passing second. This being a popular restaurant, the atmosphere was rather noisy, but there didn't seem to be any other Chosen Children there; as a result, Ken and Miyako felt a lot of attention on them since they stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Ken-chan..."

"Eh? Wormmon?"

Wormmon pulled at Ken's sleeve and gestured towards another table. There, a large group of Gazimon seemed to be harassing the Digitamamon owner.

"I-it's not my fault that this cheapskate brought me to dinner here and didn't bring money!"

"You were the one who said you'd foot the bill!"

"I never said anything like that, you liar!"

Miyako, Hawkmon, Ken, and Wormmon looked exasperatedly at the scene, and Miyako sighed. "Well, it's still a little noisy...but it's always like that, huh."

The four of them promptly returned to their meals, with the hubbub turning into white noise in the background. Eventually, however, they ended up jumping a little in place when the argument between the Digitamamon and the Gazimon got to the point where one of the Gazimon let out a very loud screech.

"Fine then! If you're not going to listen to us, we're out of here!"

"You're not thinking of leaving without paying, are you? I'll beat you up before I let you do that!"

"Like hell we'll just stand here and take that!"

One of the Gazimon groaned. "Look, this problem would be solved if you got the money that paid for our meal, right? So we'll just frisk everyone and you can have all their money. That'll pay for it, right?"

The Digitamamon huffed. "I won't allow that in my restaurant!"

"Such a spoilsport..."

"Hey, hey." One of the Gazimon nudged the one next to him. "There's some humans over there."

Ken and Miyako froze.

"Humans?"

"Yeah, humans! Humans always have a lot of money on them, don't they?"

Rather anxiously, Ken and Miyako both started blabbering and waving their hands around.

"Well, it's not like we really have a lot of money – "

"I mean, we just came here for lunch, I'm not really carrying that much – "

"We're just on a date! I'm not the kind of girl who keeps her entire fortune in her wallet everywhere!"

"Like I'm going to believe that!" yelled another one of the Gazimon, who seemed to give off an air of being the leader. "You humans have been coming into the Digital World lately just throwing around money at all these places like you rule them. So hand over the cash now!"

Miyako frowned, irritated. "You think I'm going to just give you money when you treat us like that?"

"Hmph. Gonna have that attitude, then." He pointed dramatically at Miyako and Ken. "Then we're just gonna have to take it off of you by force!

"We won't let you do that!" yelled Hawkmon, stepping in front of Miyako. Wormmon likewise did so with Ken, pouting angrily at the Gazimon.

"Really, now?" said the leader Gazimon, putting his hands (paws?) on his hips snootily. "All right, gang, grab the girl!"

Before anyone could react, the swarm of Gazimon had surrounded Miyako and were dragging her towards their own table. Another of the Gazimon snatched her bag and began looking through it for, presumably, a wallet.

"Oi!"

The Gazimon pulled out Miyako's wallet and found it not full of much more than 3,000 yen, most certainly not enough to cover meals for the large feast the Gazimon group had ordered. Exasperated, the Gazimon holding the purse turned it over and dumped everything, with the contents spilling out – including Miyako's D-3.

"Hey, you're not getting away with that – " Before Ken could make a proper response, the Gazimon had gotten to him, raided his pockets, and also taken his wallet, cell phone, and D-3. Ken's wallet contained even less cash than Miyako's, around 2,500 yen.

Wormmon and Hawkmon proceeded to attack the Gazimon without abandon, though they weren't able to do much considering that they were two against a crowd of at least fifteen. Evolution in any form was also impossible considering that Ken and Miyako were now robbed of their D-3s – they were very lucky that the Gazimon didn't seem particularly invested in causing them personal harm.

That said, it was kind of hard to use the word "lucky" when they were being mugged...

"All right, all right," said the Gazimon leader. "I bet these kids probably have some money back where they come from. So all we have to do is kidnap one of them and drag 'em back to base, right? Then the other will cough up all the money we need."

"Ooh, good idea, boss!" said another Gazimon.

"Get the girl, then. Paralyze Breath!"

The group of Gazimon breathed out a thick, black gas, causing Miyako, Ken, Hawkmon, and Wormmon to immediately freeze in place. Without further ado, the Gazimon grabbed Miyako and dragged her off before she could do anything except grunt angrily at them.

"Hey!"

By the time Ken had got his sense of feeling and ability to move back, the Gazimon had fled; the Digitamamon owner had gone after them, but Ken had a feeling he wouldn't be very successful.

* * *

Miyako sighed.

Once the Gazimon had gotten a far enough distance from the restaurant, they'd started walking at a leisurely pace. Even though Miyako had regained the ability to walk – in fact, she was being walked in the center of a large Gazimon circle – she didn't want to risk running for it when all of the Gazimon were around them brandishing their claws.

' _Get the girl,' they said,_ she thought to herself, and sighed loudly. _Always the girl they had to kidnap. Why is it always like that? I want to be the one to do a heroic rescue sometime!_

Feeling exasperated, she took off her bandanna and twirled it absentmindedly around her fingers.

* * *

"This is a rather distressing situation, isn't it…" said Hawkmon.

"We were a little too careless," said Ken. "Stopped just by losing our D-3s and some paralyzing gas...had it been a more serious threat, all of us would probably be dead by now."

"What do you suggest we do, Ken-san?"

"We have to look for her, obviously, but I don't know where to start…" Ken scratched his head awkwardly. "It probably wouldn't be as easy as just asking around where a Gazimon hideout would be, would it…?"

"We should still try," said Wormmon.

And so, the group started asking around about Gazimon, asking for anything they knew. The locals knew that the Gazimon were a group of rascals who rarely had money for things, so they often resorted to stealing or causing a ruckus in the streets for money. That said, nobody seemed to know where the Gazimon actually resided, leaving them back at square one.

Finally, the clue that they were looking for presented itself – presented itself as in literally presented itself in the form of a Gazimon carrying himself with a rather condescending attitude.

"Been lookin' for ya everywhere," said the Gazimon. "Boss wants you to know that he wants 500,000 yen delivered to me by tomorrow. I'll be waitin' here at this spot. Otherwise, we can't guarantee the safety of the girl."

"F-five hundred _thousand_ yen?" said a rather taken-aback Hawkmon.

Ken stood very still for a few seconds, narrowed his eyes, and hoisted the Gazimon in the air with both hands. (Such a thing was much harder than it looked, considering that Gazimon were not exactly the lightest thing on the planet, but Ken remained resolute.)

"Oi, tell me where Miyako is right now!"

The Gazimon was clearly rather flustered from having been suddenly hoisted in the air, but he tried to cover it up after a bit of stuttering. "O-of course I'm not going to tell you! That would defeat the purpose of the ransom, wouldn't it?"

Ken sighed. "Wormmon?"

"Yes, Ken-chan! Sticky Net!"

Wormmon's webbing immediately bound the Gazimon, allowing Ken to drop him without fear of him escaping. The Gazimon fell to the ground with a very distinct _thud_ , causing him to wince in pain.

"We could leave you here, you know…we've been talking to everyone around here and they don't seem to have a very good opinion of you. I'm pretty sure leading us back to your hideout would probably be a better option for you than leaving you at the mercy of the locals, wouldn't it?"

The Gazimon made a sound akin to that of a balloon deflating.

"Ken-chan, you're scary when you're mad."

"A-ah? Am I?" Ken opened his mouth sheepishly. "Well, they took my girlfriend, so I was just…"

* * *

Miyako sighed in exasperation as the Gazimon led her into a room and started looking for things to tie her to. They eventually settled on a chair, pushing her down onto it and assigning a Gazimon to start tying her arms up.

"You're demanding a bit much from my boyfriend," said Miyako, her face testy. "I don't think he'd be able to put together that much money within even five years..."

"Blah, blah, blah, you humans keep making stupid lies like that all the time."

"You don't really know anything about humans, do you? Pretty stupid..."

The sound of a very sharp smack rang through the air. Miyako grimaced.

"Besides, if he's _really_ your boyfriend, he'll try to come up with whatever he can to get you out of here, even if it means coughing up more than he can handle!" The Gazimon talking to her smirked and looked behind the chair for the Gazimon tying Miyako up. "Hey, what's taking you so – hey!"

The Gazimon was not tying Miyako up at all – in fact, the rope he'd been intending to use was now around _his_ front paws, and gagging his mouth was the cloth of a large pink bandanna. Within the space of barely a minute, Miyako had managed to smack his paw away, tie his own arms up, and use her bandanna to gag him.

"W-wha – how did you even do that without us noticing?"

Miyako winked. "It's because you're dumb."

And she promptly ran for it.

* * *

"You _are_ leading us in the right direction, right? Not just trying to get us lost?"

"Y-yes…"

The Gazimon's arms were still tied up with Wormmon's Sticky Net, and he was at both Wormmon and Hawkmon's combined mercy at leading them and Ken towards the Gazimon hideout.

"It's a bit hard to balance walking when I can't use my arms..."

"If we let you go, you'd be able to run away properly, and then we wouldn't have our lead. So until you lead us there, we're not letting you go," said Ken, a bit irritably.

"Hey, Hawkmon," said Wormmon, "Ken-chan's more than a little on edge…"

"So it seems. I think Miyako-san being kidnapped has gotten to him. It would be hard to expect otherwise, though, considering that it could easily be considered a personal offense..."

"I hope we can rescue Miyako soon."

As it turned out, Ken was keeping himself so busy staring at the Gazimon that he ended up running into a tree. They continued, with Ken retaining a facial expression that looked halfway between exasperation at the situation and sheer embarrassment.

* * *

It took about half an hour for the group to reach what looked like a rather large mansion. Ken privately wondered if they couldn't just sell the place if they really needed money that badly…that is, if real estate was a legitimate business in the Digital World.

"Now, will you lead us to where Miyako-san is?" asked Hawkmon.

The Gazimon shakily nodded. At this point, that was all he could do; Wormmon had gagged him with more of the Sticky Net to prevent him from calling out to his comrades.

"Very well. Please lead us in."

"I wonder how Miyako's doing right now…" said Ken.

"She's very capable, so I don't think she'd be suffering from anything too badly," said Wormmon.

"I know. But I hope she's not going through anything particularly annoying."

They snuck into a side entrance of the building. Fortunately, the place wasn't swarming with Gazimon, but there were a few still walking around, and thus it wouldn't be a good idea to just start charging in.

"There must be some way to distract them," said Hawkmon. "They don't look very smart, so I'm sure we can come up with something."

Ken was contemplating the situation, trying to figure out how they could get through since brute-forcing it with evolution was clearly not an option.

"Ken-chan? Do you have an idea?"

Ken stood there for another thirty seconds and sighed.

"…I can't come up with anything."

* * *

Miyako inched across the wall carefully and scurried behind a door, snooping in order to find the Gazimon that had her stuff. She narrowed her eyes and poked her head around the edge, glaring at the two Gazimon sitting at the table with her D-Terminal.

"Boss let us keep this one. Think we could get some money out of them for more ransom?"

"How much do they value this kind of thing, anyway?"

"The chumps need 'em for doing evolution tricks with their Digimon or something. They'll be begging for them back like dogs."

"Wouldn't it be easier to sell it on the black market?"

"Are you stupid? This kind of thing doesn't have value to anyone except the Chosen Children."

"Of course it does! Don't you know how many Digimon would pay to see the Chosen Children stripped of their stuff?"

"All right, all right. Let's look through these."

Miyako grit her teeth and stared at the Gazimon, trying to figure out how she could ambush them and get her D-Terminal back.

"Hey, check this out." The Gazimon started looking through Miyako's D-Terminal. "Looks like a message thingy. 'Sorry to interrupt your date, but Dad wants to know if you still happen to have the board you borrowed from him the other day. Just a reminder. Momoe.'"

Miyako's face tensed up to inhuman levels.

"Hm, what's this? 'Miyako-san, this is Hikari. I've been worried about something lately that I wanted to – '"

Without even taking caution, Miyako lunged herself at the Gazimon, who, taken by surprise, were barely able to make any reaction as she snatched the D-Terminal.

"It's rude to look through a woman's personal correspondences, you know!"

Miyako proceeded to beat up the two Gazimon who had handled her D-Terminal without abandon. By the time she had gotten them beaten down to the point where they couldn't move, however, the noise had managed to attract the attention of other loonies around the area and Miyako could hear them from outside.

"…oops!"

She quickly made a mad dash for it and hid in a closet room off to the side, only to immediately regret it as soon as Gazimon started to pile up in the room and tend to their injured comrades.

… _This is bad. How am I going to get out of here…?_

Miyako pulled out her D-Terminal, knowing that Ken's was still somewhere in the possession of probably some other Gazimon, and quickly started typing up an email to anyone who could send in reinforcements.

She was halfway through writing the email when the battery died.

Her lip twitched, and if it weren't for the fact she was hiding from the Gazimon in a closet room she probably would have thrown the D-Terminal on the floor and yelled at it.

Ken, Wormmon, and Hawkmon inched across the walls, dragging the captive Gazimon along with them. Snooping around the edges, they soon came across a horde of Gazimon discussing what to do next and poked their heads in.

"Do you see Miyako-san?" said Hawkmon.

"Not at all," said Ken. "They might know something, but it probably wouldn't be good to go charging in."

"If only I could evolve. I'd beat them all down!" said Wormmon.

"Mfffmm mffm mfmm mfm fmfm mmff, mfm fmm fmm mfmfffff ffmf fmm mfmf, fffmf fmmf," said the captive Gazimon, frantically waving his arms around.

"I don't care what you say," said Ken, "we're not letting you go until we get Miyako and our stuff back."

"Fmmffm mf fmffm fmf fffmf ffmff."

"Stop trying to make a ruckus, you're only going to – "

" _Mmmmmfff!_ "

The Gazimon pointed behind Ken, and he turned around only to see three Gazimon, startled at the sight of Ken, Hawkmon, Wormmon, and one of their comrades bound and gagged.

"Ken-chan…" said Wormmon.

Ken laughed sheepishly before his expression changed into that of panic. "Run!"

And he, Hawkmon, and Wormmon promptly ran for it, leaving their prisoner behind and looking for a place to hide.

* * *

"Why do I have to go through all of this anyway? It's not like they're going to get money out of me regardless of whether they keep me here or not…"

Miyako was still attempting to keep her stealth up as much as possible, creeping around wall corners and beating up any Gazimon witnesses. She wasn't sure what she'd do in case she ran into a crowd, but she had to figure out what to do now.

 _Who on earth is the architect who designed this place? There's no logical exit. Maybe I should start a fire and follow everyone out as they flee…no, that's too dangerous._

Sighing, she started looking around for anything that could potentially be useful. She started to wonder if maybe she should pull a Daisuke in this situation and look for the leader. If she could find the boss Gazimon, maybe she could find some way to threaten him and get him scared enough so that she could get her D-3 and Ken's D-3 and D-Terminal back along with free release.

As she scampered along the walls, she started trying to come up with ways to threaten the Gazimon that would sound cool, but nothing came to mind. She became so absorbed in the task that she forgot to actually look for the Gazimon boss, and as a result started sneaking around in circles.

* * *

Ken, Wormmon, and Hawkmon were not in a good situation.

Now being pursued by a large number of Gazimon, all of them were running as fast as their legs could take them, unable to fully concentrate on the task of finding Miyako or any of the lost objects.

"Is there any way we could get them to get off our tail?" said Ken.

"They're running so fast at us, I don't know if I can do anything!" said Wormmon.

After a bit of further running, Ken saw what looked like a Gazimon standing in a chair in the hallway. Thinking quickly, Ken pulled the chair out from underneath him and chucked it as hard as he could at the approaching crowd chasing them, causing them to scatter. All of them started running in haphazard directions; fortunately for Ken, Wormmon, and Hawkmon, none of the Gazimon were quite smart enough to figure out how to keep running after them while dodging the chair, and the three of them were able to safely take refuge behind a corner.

"It's only a matter of time before they find us again and keep chasing us," said Ken. "We need to find my D-3 quickly...if Wormmon can evolve to Stingmon, we'll be able to scare off these Gazimon easily and find Miyako."

"…Ken!"

Peering around the other side of the wall was none other than Miyako herself, who beamed at them and ran over cheerily. "You came!"

"Shh!" said Ken.

"…ah, sorry."

"If you don't keep your voice down, we'll get caught and I won't be able to find what room they're keeping you in."

"Yes, yes – _eh_?"

Ken was deep in thought, putting a finger to his chin. "If we hurry and find my D-3, we'll be able to have more of an intimidation factor against the Gazimon and thus can locate you more quickly. That said, I'd probably feel a little better if we made sure you're safe first…"

"…Ken."

"…it's definitely a difficult situation, and we really should hurry because the longer we wait the more likely the Gazimon are going to move you around to another room or something…"

"Ken."

"…hold on, give me a moment to think…"

"Ken-kun!" Miyako sighed in a huff, grabbed onto Ken's shoulders, and glared him straight in the eyes. Ken had to take a moment to register the shock of Miyako suddenly startling him before he realized what was going on.

"…Ah…yes. Yes. Hi, Miyako…"

* * *

"Honestly, Ken. Making that kind of mistake, that's something I'd normally be doing…"

"Sorry, sorry. I think I was just a little stressed from everything that's been happening." Ken laughed sheepishly. "But I'm glad to see you safe."

"That's good. By the way, I got my D-Terminal." Miyako held it up. "I wanted to contact Daisuke or something to see if he could help, but it ran out of battery...silly me for not charging it before we went for lunch."

"Hmm…" Ken looked at the D-Terminal.

"Maybe now that we know that Miyako-san is fine, we should head back and get reinforcements?" said Hawkmon.

"They still have our Digivices, though. And my cell phone." Miyako sighed. "It's hard to just leave without them…"

"What should we do, Ken-chan?"

Ken was back in strategic mode, thinking about their possible options. "We'd have a much better chance of winning if we had help, but while we're busy they could easily sell or throw away our things…"

He looked back at Miyako, who was pounding her fist into her hand and seemed to be very eager to beat some Gazimon up.

"…it'd probably be best if we went after them now – "

" – all right!" Miyako pumped her fist in the air cheerily. "I'm going to take every one of those Gazimon down – "

" – but, Miyako…we should probably have a plan first."

"Ah! Right. Right…" Miyako laughed weakly. "I got a little ahead of myself…"

* * *

Ken, Miyako, Hawkmon, and Wormmon inched by a wall and hid behind a door, relying entirely on the fact that the Gazimon didn't seem to have acute enough peripheral vision to catch them. Once they'd gotten safely behind, Ken nodded at Wormmon, who started spreading a Sticky Net across the edges of the wall and ceiling.

In the center of the room, three Gazimon continued to play cards and not notice Wormmon doing his work.

"We need to get them all in a group," said Ken. "Enough to make a case for negotiating with the Gazimon boss…"

"Do you think he'll listen?"

"Probably not, but we can't go in there defenseless with nothing to start with."

After a fashion, one of the Gazimon finally lifted his head and saw Wormmon, but it was too late; Wormmon had already managed to create a net that divided the room between the Gazimon and Ken, Miyako, Wormmon, and Hawkmon.

"Hey, wait – "

The three Gazimon ran towards the net, but as soon as they got to a reasonable distance from it Hawkmon threw a well-aimed Feather Slash that caused the net to come falling down. The net quickly tangled itself around the Gazimon, trapping them tightly.

"Got them!"

Miyako and Ken quickly ran towards the Gazimon, only for all three of them to grin in a way that didn't seem to bode well.

"Paralyze Breath!"

All three of them spat out the cloud of gas, and Ken suddenly remembered why it was a bad idea to take on multiple Gazimon at close range.

… _I forgot they could do that…_

As Ken's limbs stiffened, he looked at Miyako and could clearly see the look of panic on her face freezing.

* * *

"I can't believe we're back at square one…"

Miyako sighed, sitting in the chair she was tied up in. Next to her was Ken, who didn't look so pleased himself, while Hawkmon sat on the other side and Wormmon was helplessly rolling around.

In front of them was the Gazimon boss, who was looking at them smugly.

"Today's become an even better day than I hoped it would! First we find Chosen Children, then we get to get all your little Digivice thingies, and then finally we get both of you! I bet all the Chosen Children will pay a fine ransom for you."

"I keep telling you, we don't have money, we're just high school kids…" said Miyako.

"Besides," said Ken, "you'd need to find a way to contact our friends, and I don't think you know how to do that. You spent a long time looking for me when it came to holding Miyako hostage…"

"One of your friends is going to come anyway!" said a Gazimon. "We'll get the ransom from them."

Ken sighed. Everything about this was stupid. If anyone _were_ to come fetch him and Miyako from the Digital World, they'd probably have ample reinforcements, and the Gazimon wouldn't stand a chance at all. In the end, there was very little chance of the Gazimon winning this situation.

Still, it would be upsetting for him and Miyako to be kept there for too long. The fact that they'd be missing would entail missing school, alarming their friends, causing unnecessary panic...no, there were definitely more problems than any of this was worth.

Miyako, on the other hand, was thinking at top speed. _These Gazimon are stupid. There's no reason for me to have to come up with a super-brilliant plan to get around them! I'm sure I'm smarter than all of them…and Ken's here too, so this should be easy for us!...Wait, I think I have an idea…_

She cleared her throat.

"Then if you're just going to wait for someone to come and get us anyway, why don't you let me call them? If you give me my cell phone, I'll tell them what's going on and that they need to bring money."

"If you think you're getting any good ideas by letting us untie you completely…"

Ken, who had caught on quickly, picked up the line of conversation. "All you have to do is give her one free hand that she can use her phone with. You can hold down the other one if you like. That's fine, right?"

The Gazimon quickly started discussing amongst themselves until finally coming to their decision.

"Fine. But one phone call only."

The Gazimon untied one of Miyako's hands, which she promptly reached out as they fetched her the cell phone. Ken, however, was one step ahead of her.

"No, not that! Her cell phone. The other one."

Miyako looked at Ken a little confusedly, since the Gazimon was indeed holding her cell phone up, but decided to go along with it.

And so, the Gazimon started looking back and the stuff they'd stolen from Ken and Miyako and placed Miyako's D-3 in her open hand.

Five seconds later, the Gazimon were faced with a very angry Aquilamon.

The Gazimon scattered, with Miyako and Ken's items falling all over the floor as they dropped them in panic. Miyako, with both hands free now that the Gazimon restraining her had let go, retrieved Ken's D-3 and tossed it near him.

"Wormmon, evolve! Stingmon!"

Stingmon freed Ken from his bonds, and Ken quickly helped Miyako picked up the scattered items.

"Okay, is that everything?" said Miyako, immensely satisfied with herself and Ken. "One, two, thr– hey, get back here!"

Miyako jumped on Aquilamon and started chasing after a Gazimon who was making off with her wallet – a rather difficult task, given that the hallways and doors weren't very big and thus they were making a big mess out of everything.

"But – Miyako, wait!"

Ken and Stingmon quickly chased after her.

"Aquilamon! Attack him!"

"Are you sure, Miyako-san?"

"I'm sure! He's not getting away until he gives me back my wallet!"

The Gazimon ended up so panicked that he, too, ended up dropping the wallet, but it was too late; the attack had already fired and only managed to narrowly miss him. Miyako had Aquilamon make a dive for the wallet and, after retrieving it, she held it up triumphantly. "Bingo!"

"...Miyako-san, we have a problem…"

Miyako looked behind her at the damage she'd just caused. The scuffle had caused a large number of walls to be broken, with the inside parts laid bare.

"…Oops."

* * *

Miyako and Ken ended up leaving the Gazimon house in whatever wrecked state it was in; Miyako had reasoned that it was their loss for whatever property damage they'd caused.

"…man, that was a long day. I'd prefer our dates to be a little more quiet from now on."

"But you know," said Ken, "that was pretty impressive, you managing to break away even when you were being held in a hostage situation. I was worried about how you'd hold up while I was trying to find where they were keeping you, but you held out really well after all…"

"Hey, I'm pretty good at taking care of myself. Though maybe I should have just waited, because it'd have been kind of cool for you to have burst in heroically…"

Miyako giggled.

"But you know…even if you didn't have a heroic entrance, the fact you came tells me that I have a good boyfriend who'd come to rescue me."

"Well…I wouldn't put it that way…I mean, there was no reason I shouldn't have gone…"

"Oi, Ken, stop being so shy."

And with that, Ken, Miyako, Wormmon, and Stingmon walked happily into the sunset.

…before promptly remembering that their way out of the Digital World was in the opposite direction and, rather awkwardly, turning around and heading back.


End file.
